T H E I N T U I T I V E A R C H I T E C T
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
openhousenyc Video, TWA Flight Center
openhousenyc. TWA Flight Center 2014. In this video I shot, a representative from the Port Authority (sorry I don't know his name) discusses future plans for the building and also we hear (briefly) from one of the original engineers of the project.
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Improving Suburbia Portfolio 7, Chandler Park
Chandler Park in Mount Sinai, NY is an unusual place, not because of what it is but because of what it's not. Never heard of it? Not surprising since you won't find any inviting signs on the street indicating, here is "Chandler Park".
You also won't find it in your navigation system as when I tried looking for driving directions to this place. So why was I going there and how did I eventually find it you may be asking? I joined a "Meet-up" group that does ecology hiking and decided that would be fun to do, so I signed up for the Chandler Park hike. Rather than call for directions I did a google search of the park and read somewhere that you park your car at a Mount Sinai church: that was good enough for me. I rationalized there will be a sign and an obvious public parking area as with most parks. As I approached the church I pulled into its parking lot. I saw no sign for the park so I stopped a bicyclist who was passing by and asked the old man if he knew where Chandler park was. Unbeknownst to me I was very close to the park, on the other side of the parking lot to be precise. The old man bicyclist tried to discourage me from visiting by telling me it was not much of a park and no open space etc. Protectionist? Concerned citizen? A stranger looking out for my well being or more likely his own well being? I don't know but I told him I was meeting a group there and he begrudgingly pointed me to the other side of the parking lot. So I parked at the Mount Sinai Congregational Church and we walked to the back and that's where I found Chandler Park. However I still found no park sign that stated, "Chandler Park" except for a typical Suffolk County parks signage, that was it. Who is this park named after? I don't know maybe someone can answer in the comments below. During my google search I found out a few interesting things about this "hidden park" 1- It is also known as "Satan's Trail" with claims of paranormal activity complete with a haunted house (since demolished) 2- It was once a waterfront resort area where Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller stayed one summer. 3- the resort later would become residential apartments and 4-finally demolition of all the structures taking it back to its natural wild state to be used as a park with trails for hiking.
So we began our hike. These steps were found shortly into the trail. Along with a couple of other man made features these are some of the only remnants of anything having ever been built here .
We walked on and I have to say not being a hard core naturalist as my companions were, I did enjoy the change of scenic beauty, from woodland, to marsh to sandy beach to open grass fields and back to woodland. With each change of scenic scenery and elevation, you could feel the change in climate as well:
Along the way, heading down to the marsh area I found the foundation of a boathouse (I believe)....
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| Marilyn at Chandler |
So we began our hike. These steps were found shortly into the trail. Along with a couple of other man made features these are some of the only remnants of anything having ever been built here .
We walked on and I have to say not being a hard core naturalist as my companions were, I did enjoy the change of scenic beauty, from woodland, to marsh to sandy beach to open grass fields and back to woodland. With each change of scenic scenery and elevation, you could feel the change in climate as well:
As for the paranormal activity I did not experience any first hand but found some evidence of it -OK not really evidence but some interesting things:
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| I thought nobody else was around? |
OK, so you may be asking why I am writing about a park in a blog for architecture? You are justified in thinking or critiquing me for that. I thought this was an interesting story of "development" in reverse; nature claiming back man's desire to build, his need to leave a mark, make a statement, build shelter to survive. Here is a place that shows us what ultimately will become of all our building endeavors. I covered this "architectural" story ( I know that is very debatable) in my "Improving Suburbia Portfolio" series which is ironic since " Improving Suburbia through Nature" may be a more accurate title...a place more about what it's not than what it is, at least for me.
AD
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Update: Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Portfolio
For those of you interested, I have updated my Alternative Portfolio 3, Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve with new photos and interesting links. The former Grumman site is currently under major controversy as developers try to sub-divide this industrial site for housing. I only hope these pictures do not become "before" photos" of a place that once built the F14 Tomcat, Lunar Module and buildings like the one below...
Former Grumman site.
Interesting Building I thought
Le Corbusier, Weissenhoff House,
Stuttgart Germany
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
The Land That Sent Men To The Moon..
April 1, 2015
“Go back to the drawing board,” he said. “The land that sent men to the moon can be developed better than that.”
Long Island's death knell has just sounded, it's over. "The land that sent men to the moon..." will become another sub-division most likely. Once this happens, business and industry located on the site will be killed off. Shame, shame on the law makers who ought to take the hippocratic oath and not kill Long Island in this way. I'm done, finished. I see now that nothing is sacred, nothing is off limits, not even the moon.
EPCAL Plan Gets an Earful from Riverhead Residents
Posted by 
September 4, 2014 • 
Riverhead is planning to subdivide a portion of the former Grumman property in Calverton.
It seemed there was something to hate for everybody when Riverhead Town unleashed its plan to subdivide the Enterprise Park at Calverton at the former Grumman plant for public comment Wednesday night.
Environmentalists weren’t crazy about the development. Industrialists were unhappy with the mere notion that people could be living within the subdivision. Neighbors to the south of the property were concerned about an increase in traffic in their quiet neighborhoods. People concerned about the town’s finances saw the tax-free development as a mistake for a town already deeply mired in debt.
And even former Congressman George Hochbrueckner, who wrote the federal legislation in which the U.S. Navy gave the land to Riverhead Town, thought the plan was moving in the wrong direction.
But Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said he “heard no unsurmountable obstacles” in the issues raised by everyone who spoke at Wednesday’s nearly two-hour hearing.
Five hundred acres at the industrial core of the 2,900-acre site of the former Grumman plant were sold to developer Jan Burman in 2001. The subdivision plan would divide the remaining property into 50 lots, 42 of which would be redeveloped with a mix of uses, incluing retail, industrial, residential, recreational, energy park and utility projects.
The property would be placed in a special zoning district known as a planned development district in order to accomodate the different uses.
Four hundred fifty-eight acres of the property would remain as grasslands and 138 acres of grasslands are expected to be created as habitat for the short-eared owl, northern harrier and upland sandpiper.
The potential residential use of the property seemed most offensive to people who spoke Wednesday.
Riverhead Building Supply owner Edgar Goodale, who recently built a large warehouse in the industrial core of the EPCAL property, said his company’s headquarters has already “been chased from residential communities” several times.
“It’s an industrial park. It should be an industrial park,” he said. “If my peers in the business saw that I was opposed to residential development, they might have me committed, but industrial and residential don’t mix.
Mr. Goodale added that when businesses come to Riverhead to discuss plans to expand here with the town, “they could not run away fast enough.”
Laurie Downs was downright angry “at a lot fo things going on,” she told the town board. She derided the plan to allow residential development of EPCAL, and pointed out that the Riley Avenue Elementary School, attended by kids who live in Calverton, is already full of students and she believes it will need to be expanded, especially if EPCAL includes housing.
She added that the town’s proposal to take a bridge loan against the sale of lots at EPCAL in order to balance the budget couldn’t be paid off in the two years necessary. The board voted later that night to not take the bridge loan.
“All those years of bickering was uncalled for,” she said. “You should have done some governing.”
Greg Fischer, a frequent candidate for political office in Riverhead who’s now running for New York State Comptroller with the “Rent is 2 Damn High” party, didn’t like housing at EPCAL either.
“Mixing residential and light industrial is toxic,” he said. “It just doesn’t pan out.”
He added thatt the town’s “supply side economic theory of ‘if we build it, they will come'” is not wise, and urged the board to find a way to market the property to a specific industry.
John Ehlers, who did the original survey of the property, said the town can’t sell the lots before they put in roads, water and a sewer.
“If the bridge loan fails, we have a disaster here,” he said.
Robert Boehm, who lives on River Road just south of the property, said he believes the roads to the south of the property can’t handle the weight of traffic en route to EPCAL.
Mr. Hochbrueckner, the former congressman, said he would like the town to wait to hear whether LIPA approves a project to put 20 megawatts of solar panels on the property’s 7,000-foot abandoned runway, as proposed by the Virginia company Heliosage Energy.
He said the town could spend millions of dollars tearing up the asphalt on the runway and planting grass that doesn’t grow, or could “make $5 to $8 million over the next 20 years” by leasing the runway to Heliosage. He offered his consulting services to the town, free of charge, in order to facilitate solar panels there.
“Even on the environmental side, this makes sense,” he said. “This may be your last and only opportunity on the runway.”
Anthony Coates of Riverhead, who ran for a seat on the town board last year, said the town had an opportunity for three ways to make money from EPCAL: collecting taxes, selling the land, and providing jobs for people.
Because the lots will not be taxed, he said, “one leg of the stool is gone.”
He added that EPCAL now “has all the amenities of Gilligan’s Island,” while land at the nearby Calverton Links, in turnkey condition, goes for $28,000 an acre.
“What is the board projecting acres are going to sell for at EPCAL?” he asked.
He added that if the property is developed as housing, it will not be providing jobs for people who live in Riverhead, and many large employers who might set up shop there would import their work force.
“Go back to the drawing board,” he said. “The land that sent men to the moon can be developed better than that.”
Aquebogue resident and attorney Ron Hariri said he didn’t hear anyone say anything nice about the plan.
“You’ve taken the town to the brink of bankruptcy,” he told the town board. “Listen to what’s been so pursuesively articulated here tonight. Hold your horses. Step back and give this the thought it deserves.”
Gordan Howard, a Sierra Club member and frequent user of the bike path at Calverton, was more blunt with his words. He didn’t want to see any development at EPCAL.
“People like you are destroying the entire planet,” he told the town board.
If you missed the fireworks Wednesday, you can still tell Riverhead’s planning board how you feel about the EPCAL subdivision at a public hearing tonight at 7 p.m.
Original source for this article: http://www.eastendbeacon.com
Original source for this article: http://www.eastendbeacon.com
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Monday, March 30, 2015
Alternative Portfolio 11 Grumman Bethpage
This is one of my favorite and saddest investigations since I started this blog a little over a year ago. The Grumman Bethpage facility was not on my radar at all, I just happened upon it one day by chance surfing through the Internet. I learned that here in Bethpage once existed one of the best aerospace companies in the world producing great airplanes such as the Hellcat, Bearcat, The Avenger, Albatross, Goose, and F14 Tomcat among many others and my favorite thing of all time, the LEM, or Lunar Excursion Module. As great as these machines are, this blog is not about the glories of aerospace but about the improvement and exposing the horrors of suburbia and the cancer like effect it has when it runs amok. Unfortunately the Grumman Bethpage plant is good case study in exactly that. A place that once created jobs, local pride and changed the world with building a moon machine is being slowly dismantled, gobbled up and integrated into the faceless non descript' unimpressive fabric of over development, strip mall condominium living of Long Island suburbia. One day only a plaque will remain stating "here was built the LEM, the only space craft to land man on the moon" If you don't believe me just look at what "they" did with Lindbergh and his infamous airfield which is not too far from this Bethpage site; it's gone, not a trace remains, I'm not sure even a plaque marks the place, however a freeway and mall now grace that historical site. |
| The old Grumman runway, no more. |
OK so you may be reading this and getting pretty upset since Grumman itself decided to leave Long Island and it's not our fault that they did (which is a debatable topic) what else were we to do? I hear you and it's too late as the economic machine has pressed forward but we can preserve what's left, and grant Landmark Historical status to what's remaining.
The Building where the LEM was manufactured is now "Grumman Studios" where some Hollywood type movies are being made like Salt, and the recent TV special remake of The Sound of Music. This adaptive reuse of the facility I have to say is a good one. The building itself is still intact lending its cavernous spaces to the shooting of movies. So it's an ideal situation for the time being. As I was photographing on this cold but sunny winter day a man in his car rolled down his window to give me the finger well not that finger but the thumbs up followed by, "we used to build great things here..." That sums up my visit as he sped away and I looked around at the immediate encroachment of Suburbia.
Finally I would like to add, anyone visiting the site should be careful not to enter Grumman Road East. I made a wrong turn while I was looking for the site and assumed from my map that this was a continuous road and proceeded down not wanting to miss anything-Nope go down Grumman Road East and there you will find blocks of solid condo and a contrived dead end which stops you from proceeding to Grumman Road West where the actual famed Grumman buildings are located. This whole experience bothered me in a profound way. It seems to me our generation is leaving no legacy for our kids - No classic cars do we build worthy to restore, no good products that will later be antiques to hunt for, no historical sites to visit and finally no decent architecture to preserve. Maybe I am being harsh, maybe I just don't see things right.
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| When I took this photo I did not notice the little fellow to the left until now. In any case his gaze says it all... (LEM on display at the Cradle of Aviation, one of my favorite places to visit in the world) |
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